Thursday, June 23, 2016

Summer - American John Sloan 1871-1951

American John French Sloan (1871-1951) was a member of The Eight, a group of American artists, & he became a leading figure in the Ashcan School of realist artists. He was known for his urban genre painting & ability to capture the essence of neighborhood life in New York City, often through his window.

John Sloan (American painter, 1871-1951) The Picnic Grounds 1906I was never interested in putting propaganda into my paintings, so it annoys me when art historians try to interpret my city life pictures as 'socially conscious.' I saw the everyday life of the people, and on the whole I picked out bits of joy in human life for my subject matter. John French SloanJohn Sloan (American painter, 1871-1951) The New Blue Dress 1913I don’t believe in art for art’s sake. I think that very often a literary motive may inspire the finest art, in fact almost always. John French SloanJohn Sloan (American painter, 1871-1951) Gladys Carter Woman in White 1916What more do you want to know about an artist when you have his work? John French SloanJohn Sloan (American painter, 1871-1951) Austrian-Irish Girl c 1920Consistency is the quality of a stagnant mind. John French SloanJohn Sloan (American painter, 1871-1951) Carol with Red Curls 1913You can be a giant among artists without ever attaining any great skill. Facility is a dangerous thing. When there is too much technical ease the brain stops criticizing. Don't let the hand fall into a smart way of putting the mind to sleep. John French SloanJohn Sloan (American painter, 1871-1951) Suzette in Yellow 1916The emphasis on original, individual work in the past years has done a great deal to produce a crop of eccentric fakes and has carried art away from the stream of tradition. Tradition is our heritage of knowledge and experience. We can't get along without it. John French SloanJohn Sloan (American painter, 1871-1951) Mary Kerr Young Woman in Black and White 1902The subject may be of first importance to the artist when he starts a picture, but it should be of least importance in the finished product. The subject is of no aesthetic significance. John French SloanJohn Sloan (American painter, 1871-1951) Pink and Blue 1915Though a living cannot be made at art, art makes life worth living. It makes living, living. It makes starving, living. It makes worry, it makes trouble, it makes a life that would be barren of everything — living. It brings life to life. John French Sloan

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On making history and & art available to all: "Traditionally art history has been inherently elitist and exclusive, both socially and intellectually. Art tended to be commissioned by the upper classes. Connoisseurship was seen as a superior, refined skill and the products of art-historical scholarship were guarded almost as fiercely as the art itself." states Emile de Bruijn on his blog "Treasure Hunt" of the National Trust in the UK.

William Noel, Director of Special Collections Center & Director of Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies. University of Pennsylvania, says, "...digital data is not a threat to real data, it’s just an advertisement that only increases the aura of the original, so there just doesn’t seem to be any point in putting restrictions on the data. There is the further fact that the data is funded by taxpayers’ money. So it didn’t seem fair to limit what taxpayers could do with the data that they paid for."